Summer break is longed for by most of the children because it is their time of freedom to do fun things with friends and family or play their favorite video games. It may sound fun and all but this can cause children of all level to lose their academic skills over the summer -Especially if they are unsupervised.
Summer learning loss could be avoided if parents would also be involved academically on their summer activities. Now, if you are not aware of this here are some key points to what summer learning loss is.
1. Loss of academic skills over the summer
2. Achievement gap is the strongest contributor for high school dropout rate.
3. Loss of 2-3 months of reading.
4. Reading and spelling abilities are affected
5. Reading scores are affected.
6. 2 months of Math skills
7. By grade 5th learning loss can leave students 21/2 to 3 years behind their peers.
8. Summer Learning loss can follow students through high school, college and beyond
9. Lot of kids get bored over the summer and spend a lot of time unsupervised and with limited resources for any unconstructive activity
10. Students score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation that they do at the beginning of summer vacation
No, I am not saying that you should force your children in to studying but you can make them learn in a fun way. There are lots of things you can do over the summer and even with just thirty minutes or an hour could really help your child cope up with their learning loss.
1. Encourage your child to read
You should set a time for your children to read – a 30 minute per day is all it takes! Take the opportunity of their summer break for them to strengthen their reading skills. Studies shows that reading four to five books over the summer has a positive impact comparable to summer school enrolment. Plus, this gives your child a chance to choose books that he or she is interested in, keeping the activity fun and interesting too!
Now some kids are really hard to encourage to read more often and get bored easily. For a change of view, how about bringing them to your local library instead. This could help them to refresh their minds and motivate them to read. If you are planning to have a family outing be it on the beach or park don’t forget to bring a book that your child can read on if he or she has a spare time.
2. Word Games
Word games are the most popular way to boost your child`s vocabulary skills and as the same time a fun way to learn. You can make your own games such as spelling, word match, puzzles or if you don’t have a time to do the games by yourself you can also make use of board games or the amazing system of SuperSkillsBox. They will surely love the SuperSkillsBox word games and puzzles that you can solve along with them. With SuperSkillsBox system they get to learn new word everyday in just four minutes a day. A short daily study in the summer will help your child to get ahead of their studies.
3. Go for a field trip!
Kids love field trips! Its fun and they get to know new things from the place that they are visiting. Like art/science/history museums that have amazing activities that your children will love. You can also visit historical places and bring a reference book with you so you can explain things to them. Have a simple quiz or a guessing game about the historical place that you`ll visit.
4. Travel the world
You can travel the world without spending a penny! With the use of a globe/map and an atlas you can have games with geography. You can ask your children to point out in the map a certain country and read from the atlas of what amazing things you can find on that country. A very great thing to do in the summer that helps your child to enhance their memory skills.
5. Get techy
The use of technology offers many opportunities to encourage summer learning. Through promoting vital skills like problem solving and critical thinking, educational games are a valuable way to allow technology to your summer learner. Start a tech project together such as robotics kit or you can make use of the educational apps that are available on any tablet that you have. Just make sure you`ll limit their time exposure on gadgets because it may cause them to lure around the internet instead of using it for educational purposes.
6. Off to camps!
You can also send them to camps that focuses on their interests. Like science camps, writing camps, or sports camps.
Summer is not only about fun but can also be an enriching learning experience for children to get a head start for the next school year. There are so many things that you could do with your children this summer aside from the list that we have here. Just do what you think that you and your family can enjoy while the kids learn at the same time.
